Juke Right, Juke Left

Mike Lux observes that while Barack Obama put out a statement criticizing Wes Clark, supported the FISA mostly-cave-in, and ran ads touting his support for welfare reform, he also blew of the DLC, made a strong speech on universal health care to the National Association of Latino elected Officials, and opposed the California gay-bashing initiative.

There's not a clear pattern here; in one case, Obama is accepting a half-a-loaf compromise in what looks like an election year defensive crouch; in another, he's trying not to let Wes Clark step on the campaign's message; in others, he's taking a substantially progressive position. It's not a "move to the center" so much as it is a demonstration of the fact that Obama's not a down-the-line leftie, which is something we already knew.

Comments

[ari]

I'm not sure I agree with your last point about Obama and Clark. Here's why: first it was Clark, then Beers, and now Webb. This is not a case of surrogates accidentally stepping on their standard-bearer's message. This is clearly a coordinated campaign to raise questions about McCain's central message: that the war hero deserves the job because he's a war hero. Obama meanwhile, shakes his head, clucks his tongue, and asks: "Why are these people saying such abominable things about Senator McCain's service?" The right does this all the time. The left (okay, the center) is usually too disorganized to make it happen. This is a good thing. I hope.

[ari]

I'm also not sure why I said that the Clark stuff was you "last point." I really should proofread on occasion. Just as a lark. It's good to try new things, right?

[Joe Klein's conscience]

Ari:
So you believe this was coordinated by the Obama campaign? You do understand that Clark was a Hillary supporter, right? Maybe Clark did it on his own because he wants a Democrat to win.

[ari]

Yes, I think it was coordinated. And I think the original assumption (which I shared, by the way), that Obama was disavowing Clark out of fear, was wrong. I think this is a pretty classic tactical maneuver: have surrogates say what needs saying about the opposition, have the standard bearer react as Obama has, and then let the voters remember that John McCain was a fighter pilot when Barack Obama was in diapers. Moreover, my point above was that when this happens on the right, when McCain's partisans suggest that Obama is a latté-sipping pansy or a seekrit Muslim, we're all certain that their marching orders came directly from McCain. But when it's Democrats acting like this, the assumption is that the Obama camp can't get their message in order, and that the candidate is fighting from a crouch. My sense, based on the number of times this has happened in the past few days -- first Clark, then Beers, now Webb -- is that this is the message. And Obama is on the attack.

[litbrit]

ari, one day we must play chess.

[Adrock]

And now Obama supports an expansion of Bush's faith-based initiatives program. I've been hesitant to criticize him lately, and have been scornful of those who have, but this is a little ridiculous. Bush has no domestic agenda. Validating anything he did is a troubling sign. I'm not surprised by the pandering, but I don't understand it either. Is this just a part of his 50-state strategy? I'm not against the overall idea of appealing to a broader range of constituencies, but not at the expensive of the base.

[Scott K]

Adrock,

There have been other posts elsewhere on this issue-- the media has been doing a crappy job of framing when they report on this. Obama is pretty much just pushing the same policy that was promoted by Clinton and other Democrats-- allowing religious organizations to obtain federal money in order to do things that are good for a secular society. There used to be safeguards in place to ensure that the religion and the federally funded secular purposes were separate, but W has pretty much torn down all these walls. It does make sense to allow religious organizations to have access to federal funds under specific, enforceable preconditions because in many communities, the church is uniquely placed to reach many of the people that may be more difficult to reach in any other manner. I'm sure that Obama realizes that from his experience in community organizing and Trinity.

Obama speaking about the topic in public is obviously outreach to what I'm going to call "disaffected religious voters", but don't think that it's equivalent to the "faith-based initiatives" of W. Bush.